14 Weird And Creepy Cults Still Active Today

If you're looking for a mash-up of world religions, New Age hokum, far-right nationalism, and infrastructure spending, then Happy Science is for you.Japanese cult Happy Science.It started in 1986. Ryuho Okawa founded it.Ryuho Okawa, a former salaryman, became drawn to the God Light Association. He formed his own personality cult, Science of Happiness, then renamed it Happy Science a few years later.

Okawa claims he is the human form of El Cantare, a supreme being. El Cantare mixes Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, and other prophets to make a nine-dimensional heaven with him at the top. He also built a huge mythology of New Age nonsense. Simultaneously, he started a political group called the Happiness Realization Party.

His party pushes a harsh Japanese nationalism. This nationalism denies historical cruelties. It calls for conflict with China and North Korea, and rebuilding Japan's infrastructure. The group claims 12 million members globally. It has a media arm and enjoys tax breaks in the US.

One of the most notorious cults of the modern era, RaëlismRaëlism.Raëlism started in 1974 with a Frenchman named Claude Vorilhon.Vorilhon called himself Räel. He claimed he saw an alien spacecraft in southern France. Beings on the ship told him humans were the future and gave him a Bible. Over six days, the head alien, Yahweh, explained the Old Testament records humanity's early days. He told Vorilhon he must build an embassy for the aliens' return.

For thirty years, Räelians acted like a kooky hippie cult worshipping space aliens. They fought aggression, supported science, and enjoyed being naked and having sex with many people. They gathered 20,000 followers and became very popular in Asia. Then, in 2002, things changed. A company owned by Räelians, Clonaid, claimed it did the impossible.Clonaid cloned a human.They cloned a baby girl they named Eve.

Everyone went nuts, with the White House weighing in, lawsuits filed, and claims of a dozen other human clones popping up. To date, no evidence of any actual clones has appeared, but the company continues selling anThey used an embryonic cell fusion device.e for over $9,000 - despite nobody knowing what it does.

Also known as "Body of Christ" and "Garbage Eaters," the BrethrenThe Brethren.The Brethren are an end-times group branching from the '70s Jesus movement. They reject worldly things and earthly pleasures to clean themselves for the world's end. Brethren members essentially...Brethren members live as vagrants.They do odd jobs to survive. They eat trash. They avoid bathing and medical care. They give all money they earn to the group.

They forbid dancing and laughing (until Jesus returns). Bar members cannot talk to family. The group bans contact between binary genders. Group founder Jim Roberts died in December 2015.This leaves the future of the secretive cult unclear..

This group is an offshoot of Mormonism constantly in the news for bad reasons.FLDS openly accepts polygamy. The mainstream LDS outlawed this a century ago. The group has six thousand to ten thousand members in rural areas.Utah and Arizona.The group controls nearly all of two small, linked border towns in those two states.

Mormon splinter groups existed before the FLDS. A group of men excommunicated by the church formed the FLDS in 1991. These men held various prophetic roles until Rulon Jeffs took over in 2002. Jeffs died soon after, and his son Warren took control. Under Warren Jeffs, FLDS practices like child marriage, bigamy, incest, racism, abandoning teenage boys, and child abuse became public knowledge.

Jeffs went to prison in 2007. He remains the church's acting head while his successors fight for power.

The Twelve Tribes formed in 1972 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.The Twelve TribesThe group uses many names and has an international presence. Elbert Spriggs (who calls himself Yoneq) started the group in the early '70s from the 'Jesus movement.' It began as a prayer group for teenagers, breaking away from their Presbyterian church after a January service was canceled for watching the Super Bowl.

The group spread fast across the South. They took the peace and love feel of hippie culture. They aimed to recreate the first-century Christian church from the Book of Acts. They have no formal links to any Christian branch. They practice messianic Jewish beliefs. These beliefs teach Jews caused Christ's death. They seek to set up twelve Israeli tribes globally to predict the world's end.

Accusers claim they operate as a cult and use their children for slave labor and tax evasion. The group has between 2,500 and 3,000 members.

The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors is the formal name. This cult centers on founder Dwight York.CombiningChristianity, ancient Egyptian symbols, African rituals, and the belief that aliens are coming, the Nation believes 144,000 chosen people will be taken to a flying city. They will be spirited to Orion to prepare for the final fight against Satan.

York mixed New Age ideas, Black Power militancy, and ancient Egyptian religion in hip hop and rural Georgia. York built a huge compound using donated money. York's myths included cloning, racial theory, cosmology, anti-government plots, and linguistics. While the cult grew, investigators pursued York. They finally arrested him in 2002 for running a massive child trafficking ring involving up to 1,000 people.

Prison sent him for life. Authorities seized and tore down his compound. The group remains, though its membership is much smaller now.

Congregation for the LightThis group avoids the backwater compounds common to other cults. Instead, its headquarters sits in Manhattan. It shares traits with other cults: one person has total control. They feature bizarre racial theories about Aryans and Atlantis. They practice doomsday prepping. The mythology involves owls. Strange medical claims suggest bad karma causes cancer. They shun members who leave. The group strongly controls members' personal lives.

This group marries older men with young girls. It enjoys tax-exempt status as a religion. Only about 200 members join the Light. They keep themselves in virtual seclusion. Member parents often raise their children within the cult. Most of their money comes from taking estates of dead members.

Catholic Freemason Paul Foster Case created theBuilders of the AdytumIn 1922, this group combined esoteric teaching, tarot, Masonic symbols, and Kabbalah. Case felt called to "accept" the huge duty of starting an Order for all humankind." His BOTA group now has about 5,000 members globally, with a large presence in Los Angeles.The Builders of the Adytum carry the huge task of starting an Order meant to help all people. Their BOTA group has about 5,000 members globally. They have a big presence in Los Angeles.

Born in Vietnam in 1950, the former

Born in Vietnam in 1950, the formerHue Dang Trinh became Supreme Master Ching Hai. She is an expert in Quan Yin meditation. She claims she can channel God's inner light. Ching Hai actually channels money. Her 20,000 followers gave her a flashy lifestyle. They also formed an international business group with many members.Founded in 1965 by Paul Twichell, this non-profit religion moved to several spots before settling in suburban Minneapolis. Like other New Age faiths, it follows certain patterns.Eckankar

She also teaches environmentalism. She built an artificial island.She built an artificial island in a protected mangrove reserve in Florida. The federal government took it and sold it.Members wear necklaces with her image. People say they work for free at her restaurants. They cannot eat any animal products.

Paul Twichell founded this non-profit religion in 1965. It moved to a few places before settling in suburban Minneapolis. Like many New Age religions, it follows that path.EckankarEckankar mixes mysticism, Eastern thought, meditation, and made-up symbols. Members claim ancient roots, tens of thousands of years old. They speak an invented language and take new names. One meditates by chanting "HU" to separate the soul from the body.

Though registered as a non-profit, the group sells its founder's materials for high profit. Allegations suggest nearly all of Twichell's books, which form Eckankar's base, are plagiarized.

The CUT is another New Age cult with a cult of personality. It started in 1975 as a branch of Summit Lighthouse. Founder Elizabeth Claire Prophet presented herself and her husband as messengers of the "Ascended Masters," ancient beings central to Theosophy. They also included Christian Science, the "I AM" movement, and Mormon-style doomsday prepping.Members engaged in doomsday prepping..

The Prophets gained wealth. They bought large properties in the Santa Monica mountains and Montana. Members went into debt. They built fallout shelters and paid large sums to secure a spot in the post-nuclear-conflict society. The church faced accusations of making illicit straw purchases.The church faced accusations of making illicit straw purchases.They used sleep deprivation against members who tried to leave. The Prophet retired in 1999 and died ten years later because of poor health.

Since then, the church has faced legal issues and fights over leadership. Still, members meet regularly.

The Apostles of Infinite Love are based in the mountains of Quebec.Apostles of Infinite LoveThe Apostles of Infinite Love began in 1962 as a Catholic splinter group. It formed with an excommunicated French priest.Excommunicated French priestMichel Collin gave himself the name “Pope Clement XV.” He presided over kidnapping, sexual abuse, and extortion while believing he was the true heir to the Church and receiving messages from the Virgin Mary.

The "church" split because Collin fought with a co-founder, Jean Gaston Tremblay, who claimed the title of Pope Gregory XVII in 1969.Jean Gaston Tremblay declared himself Pope Gregory XVII in 1969. He died in 2011. A 34-year investigation preceded his death, leading to a major raid in 1999, but all charges were dropped. The cult shows weakness now, with no new leader and members leaving.

A cult leader changing his name from "Buffalo Bill" to "Yisrayl" signals a cult. This is exactly what the leader of the House of Yahweh did.House of YahwehFounder Bill Hawkins went on a seven-year pilgrimage to Israel. Hawkins returned to the US and started his church in rural Texas. Its mix of end-of-the-world theology, Hebrew mysticism, and buffet-style Christianity (rejecting the cross and Trinity, accepting the Resurrection and kosher laws) became popular. The HOY quickly gained members.

Bill saw the end times. He predicted Y2K would destroy society. He claimed nuclear war would kill most of the planet by 2001. He also said rain would stop for a thousand days. None of these things occurred. Bill then changed the timing for the conflict and started a...YouTube channeland sold books like "Birth of the Nuclear Baby."

Multiple members of the group, including Hawkins, faced prison for bigamy and child sexual assault. Two HOY members died from no medical care.

Remember theSunshine Carpet CleanersfromSeinfeld? The Church of Bible Understanding has an idea: a carpet cleaning crew secretly brainwashes its customers. This group is a New York evangelical commune. It once had 10,000 members. Stewart Traill started the group after leaving a Pennsylvania Pentecostal church. Soon, he had many young men living in virtual poverty under his guidance.

The church started real businesses. These included a van sales lot and the carpet cleaning business. The group split over accusations. People claimed they lured orphaned minors to join. They also forced members to give almost all their money to Traill. In 2013, the group faced trouble for running two bad orphanages in Haiti.orphanages in Haiti, even though the group raised millions to run them.